Livingstone Discovers Victoria Falls, 1855 Livingstone Discovers Victoria Falls, 1855 Printer Friendly Version >>> Born in Scotland, David Livingstone arrived in Africa in 1840 at the age of 27 as a missionary and physician. He spent most of the remainder of his life on the continent, his exploits making him the most famous explorer of the century. An encounter with a lion in 1843 cost Livingstone the use of David Livingstone his left arm. Undeterred, Livingstone continued his exploration of the African interior, particularly the Zambezi River area in 1852-1856. It was during this expedition that he became the first European to witness the magnificence of Victoria Falls. In 1866, Livingstone set out at the head of an expedition charged with the task of finding the headwaters of the Nile River. His lack of contact with the outside world over a period of four years raised concerns for his welfare and prompted the New York Herald to send Henry Stanley to find Livingstone. Stanley achieved his goal on November 10, 1871 approaching the explorer in an African village with the immortal words "Dr.

Livingstone I presume" (see Stanley Finds Livingstone, 1871 ) Years in the wilderness took their toll however, and David Livingstone died in Africa in April 1873 at age sixty. A Scene "Gazed Upon by Angels in Their Flight" In early November 1855, Livingstone traveled down the Zambezi River to see for himself the area the natives called "smoke that thunders." Approaching the spot in canoes, the party could see the columns of spray and hear the thunderous roar of water miles away from the falls: ADVERTISMENT "After twenty minutes' sail from Kalai we came in sight, for the first time, of the columns of vapor appropriately called 'smoke,' rising at a distance of five or six miles, exactly as when large tracts of grass are burned in Africa. Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees; the tops of the columns at this distance appeared to mingle with the clouds. They were white below, and higher up became dark, so as to simulate smoke very closely.

The whole scene was extremely beautiful; the banks and islands dotted over the river are adorned with sylvan vegetation of great variety of color and form�no one can imagine the beauty of the view from any thing witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight. The only want felt is that of mountains in the background. The falls are bounded on three sides by ridges 300 or 400 feet in height, which are covered with forest, with the red soil appearing among the trees. When about half a mile from the falls, I left the canoe by which we had come down thus far, and embarked in a lighter one, with men well acquainted with the rapids, who, by passing down the centre of the stream in the eddies and still places caused by many jutting rocks, brought me to an island situated in the middle of the river, and on the edge of the lip over which the water rolls.

In coming hither there was danger of being swept down by the streams which rushed along on each side of the island; but the river was now low, and we sailed where it is totally impossible to go when the water is high. But, though we had reached the island, and were within a few yards of the spot, a view from which would solve the whole problem, I believe that no one could perceive where the vast body of water went; it seemed to lose itself in the earth, the opposite lip of the fissure into which it disappeared being only 80 feet distant. At least I did not comprehend it until, creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet, and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards. The entire falls are simply a crack made in a hard basaltic rock from the right to the left bank of the Zambesi, and then prolonged from the left bank away through thirty or forty miles of hills.

If one imagines the Thames filled with low, tree-covered hills immediately beyond the tunnel, extending as far as Gravesend, the bed of black basaltic rock instead of London mud, and a fissure made therein from one end of the tunnel to the other down through the keystones of the arch, and prolonged from the left end of the tunnel through thirty miles of hills, the pathway being 100 feet down from the bed of the river instead of what it is, with the lips of the fissure from 80 to 100 feet apart, then fancy the Thames leaping bodily into the gulf, and forced there to change its direction, and flow from the right to the left bank, and then rush boiling and roaring through the hills, he may have some idea of what takes place at this, the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa. In looking down into the fissure on the right of the island, one sees nothing but a dense white cloud, which, at the time we visited the spot, bad two bright rainbows on it.

From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted 200 or 300 feet high; there condensing, it changed its hue to that of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower, which soon wetted us to the skin� An expedition artist's rendition of the falls On the left of the island we see the water at the bottom, a white rolling mass moving away to the prolongation of the fissure, which branches off near the left bank of the river� The walls of this gigantic crack are perpendicular, and composed of one homogeneous mass of rock. The edge of that side over which the water falls is worn off two or three feet, and pieces have fallen away, so as to give it some- what of a serrated appearance.

That over which the water does not fall is quite straight, except at the left corner, where a rent appears, and a piece seems inclined to fall off Upon the whole, it is nearly in the state in which it was left at the period of its formation�On the left side of the island we have a good view of the mass of water which causes one of the columns of vapor to ascend, as it leaps quite clear of the rock, and forms a thick unbroken fleece all the way to the bottom. Its whiteness gave the idea of snow, a sight I had not seen for many a day. As it broke into (if I may use the term) pieces of water, all rushing on in the same direction, each gave off several rays of foam, exactly as bits of steel, when burned in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks.

The snow-white sheet seemed like myriads of small comets rushing on in one direction, each of which left behind its nucleus rays of foam." References: Livingstone, David, Missionary Travels and Researches In South Africa (1858) How To Cite This Article: "Livingstone Discovers Victoria Falls, 1855," EyeWitness to History, (2000). After his death, Livingstone's body was transported to England and buried in Westminster Abbey. His heart remained in Africa however, buried at the foot of the tree where he died in modern-day Zambia. To the Victoria Falls - Discovery of the Victoria Falls Discovery of the Victoria Falls Discovery of the Victoria Falls Return to the Zambezi Livingstone returned to the Zambezi in May 1853, spending a month in Linyanti (in what is now Botswana) with Chief Sekeletu, the son of Sebetwane, of the Makololo .

Livingstone was determined to explore the possibility of opening up trade routes from either the east or west coasts, having realised the difficulties of a route from the south, whilst also preparing the way for a mission among the Makololo by the London Missionary Society under whose auspices he was travelling. In June 1853 Livinstone, Chief Sekeletu and a large entourage of Makololo set out for Old Sesheke on the Zambezi and they followed the river upstream, north, to the Barotse Plain, before returning to Linyanti. In August 1853 he encountered two Arab traders from Zanzibar who were assessing the slave and ivory resources of the area. Livingstone believed that Christianity and free trade would liberate Africa from slavery, and determined to explore the possibilities of an overland route to the west coast, before eventually returning to the Zambezi and following it downstream to the east coast. In November of the same year Livingstone set off on his ambitious quest. Leaving Linyanti he retraced his journey upstream into Barotseland before branching off to the west and finally reaching the Atlantic coast at Luanda (in Angola) in May 1854.

Along the journey he enountered the Balonda who traded slaves to the Mambari and the Portuguese. Further northwest at Katema slave trading was even more pronounced. The party consisted of 27 Makololo porters and carried three muskets, a rifle and a double-barrelled shotgun plus 10 kilos of beads, a small tent, a sheepskin blanket, a horse rug, some tea, coffee and sugar, a sextant and some spare clothes "to be used when we reached civilised life". Livinstone later recorded "I had always found, that the art of successful travel consisted in taking as few impedimenta as possible". There can be few finer Victorian understatements than his observation: "It is not all pleasure, this exploration". During the journey Livingstone suffered 27 attacks of malaria, and was reduced to "a skeleton". At Luanda Livingstone recouporated and recovered his health, and was offered passage back to England by sea, which he refused.

"I resolved to decline the tempting offers of my naval friends," he penned in his diary, "and take my Makololo companions to their chief [at Linyanti] with a view of trying to make a path from his country to the east coast by means of the great river Zambezi." Discovery of the Victoria Falls Livingstone arrived back at Linyanti on 11th September 1855, and was again well received by Sekeletu and his Makololo. There he found fresh supplies waiting for him sent by Moffat via Mzilikazi, the great Matabele Chief. Realising the impracticability of the western route he had explored, Livingstone set out again in a courageous attempt to cross the African continent to the Indian Ocean. Here, as previously, he heard tales of the great waterfall, and in November 1855 he finally set out to visit it. Accompanied by Sekeletu and, initially by some 200 Africans, he left Linyanti again for Old Sesheke, and then followed the river downstream.

Soon after leaving, the chief asked Livingstone: "Have you smoke that thunders in your country?", pointing at columns of vapour rising in the distance. The rains had already broken and the party had an uncomfortable passage downstream to the Katombora Rapids. At the rapids the party was forced to leave their canoes and proceed along the riverbank. Two days after leaving Old Sesheke, Livingstone reached Kalai Island on which he saw the graves of Sekute Leya Chiefs, surrounded with a fence of seventy large elephant tusks. It is interesting to note that 150 years later, the grave is still visible, marked with heavily weathered teak railway sleepers buried upright in the ground, with which the descendants of Chief Sekute replaced the ivory-tusk fence when it had weathered away. After a night on the island, Livingstone set out to the Falls. Sekeletu had intended to accompany him, but as only one canoe could be found, he had to stay behind.

A diary entry, in one of the rough notebooks which he wrote up once or twice a week, reads matter-of-factly; "Musioatunya bears SSE from Sekota islet after 20 minutes sail thence on 16th November, 1855, saw three or five large columns of vapour rising 100 or more feet" Livingstone must have wondered what lied ahead as they travelled down the rapids towards the rising coloumns of cloud, with the ever present roar growing closer. One can only image his awe as the local boatmen arranged by Sekeletu took him to an island right on the very edge of the lip over which the water rolls". The Victoria Falls of the Zambesi River (from Livingstone's Missionary Travels 1857) This etching was commissioned by the publisher from an artist in London, who having never seen the Falls relied on Livingstone's written descriptions to detail the scene.

Livingstone noted in the text that "The artist has a good idea of the scene, but, by way of explanation, he has shown more of the depth of the fissure than is visible, except by going close to the edge" Livingstone later expanded in his journal notes, published as 'Missionary Travels and Reasearches in South Africa' in 1857, writing: "After twenty minutes' sail from Kalai we came in sight, for the first time, of the columns of vapour appropriately called 'smoke,' rising at a distance of five or six miles, exactly as when large tracts of grass are burned in Africa. Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees; the tops of the columns at this distance appeared to mingle with the clouds. They were white below, and higher up became dark, so as to simulate smoke very closely." [Livingstone, 1857] He was struck by the beauty of the river and its banks, recording emotively: "The whole scene was extremely beautiful; the banks and islands dotted over the river are adorned with sylvan vegetation of great variety of colour and form.

At the period of our visit several trees were spangled over with blossoms. There, towering over all, stands the great burly baobab, each of whose arms would form the trunk of a large tree, besides groups of graceful palms, which with their feathery-shaped leaves depicted on the sky, lean their beauty to the scene. Some trees resemble the great spreading oak, others assume the character of our own elms and chestnuts; but no one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." [Livingstone, 1857] This last passage has often been misquoted in reference to the Falls themselves, but it was the stretches of the river upstream of the falls which had already enchanted Livingstone, who felt the landscape only missing a backdrop: "The only want felt is that of mountains in the background.

The falls are bounded on three sides by ridges 300 or 400 feet in height, which are covered with forest, with the red soil appearing among the trees." [Livingstone, 1857] About one kilometre upstream of the falls Livingstone transferred to a smaller, lighter canoe and proceeded in this to the island between Main and Rainbow Falls which is today known as Livingstone Island. Landing on the island, he obtained his first view of the falls, which he named after Queen Victoria, from what must be one of the most impressive viewpoints. The following passage describes his journey to the edge of the Falls: "When about half a mile from the falls, I left the canoe by which we had come down thus far, and embarked in a lighter one, with men well acquainted with the rapids, who, by passing down the centre of the stream in the eddies and still places caused by many jutting rocks, brought me to an island situated in the middle of the river, and on the edge of the lip over which the water rolls.

In coming hither there was danger of being swept down by the streams which rushed along on each side of the island; but the river was now low, and we sailed where it is totally impossible to go when the water is high. But, though we had reached the island, and were within a few yards of the spot, a view from which would solve the whole problem, I believe that no one could perceive where the vast body of water went; it seemed to lose itself in the earth, the opposite lip of the fissure into which it disappeared being only 80 feet distant. At least I did not comprehend it until, creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi, and saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet, and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards...

the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa." [Livingstone, 1857] Livingstone's estimates of the length and width of the gorge are gross under-estimates - he wrote in 1857 "Whoever may come after me will not, I trust, have reason to say I have indulged in exaggeration." The Victoria Falls (etching) Livingstone incorrectly concluded that the Falls were the result of a fault line in the rock being pulled apart to create a fissure into which the river fell, and he assumed the gorges below to be a series of hills through which the river then flowed: "In looking down into the fissure on the right of the island, one sees nothing but a dense white cloud, which, at the time we visited the spot, had two bright rainbows on it. From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly like steam, and it mounted 200 or 300 feet high; there condensing, it changed its hue to that of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower, which soon wetted us to the skin...

"On the left of the island we see the water at the bottom, a white rolling mass moving away to the prolongation of the fissure, which branches off near the left bank of the river... On the left side of the island we have a good view of the mass of water which causes one of the columns of vapour to ascend, as it leaps quite clear of the rock, and forms a thick unbroken fleece all the way to the bottom. Its whiteness gave the idea of snow, a sight I had not seen for many a day. As it broke into (if I may use the term) pieces of water, all rushing on in the same direction, each gave off several rays of foam, exactly as bits of steel, when burned in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks. The snow-white sheet seemed like myriads of small comets rushing on in one direction, each of which left behind its nucleus rays of foam." [Livingstone, 1857] Livingstone returned to the island the following day, in the company of Sekeletu, who had not seen the Falls before. On the island Livingstone planted a number of peach and apricot stones and some coffee seeds.

He arranged for one of the Makololo to return and make a hedge around the garden to protect it from hippopotami. When the garden was prepared, Livingstone cut his initials and the date 1855 on a tree on the island, which he called Garden Island. Baldwin, the second European to visit the Falls and who was still there when Livingstone returned for his second visit, recorded "the Doctor tells me that it is the only place, from the West Coast to the East, where he had the vanity to cut his initials." Today there is no sign of the garden and the tree bearing indecipherable marks commonly thought to be the initials carved by the missionary cannot be the original. Indeed Thomas Baines, who visited the Falls in 1862, only seven years after Livingstone, records that he visited Livingstone Island and found that the garden planted by Livingstone had planted there had been trampled by hippopotami and was completely overgrown. Elephant and hippopotami were until recently the only regular visitors to the island, and today's visitors are rewarded with the magnificent view, virtually unchanged since Livingstone's first sight of the Falls.

Leaving the Falls, Livingstone headed north-eastwards to the Kafue following it downstream to its confluence with the Zambezi, which he then followed, with only a detour near the Cabora Bassa rapids, to reach the Indian Ocean at Quelimane in May 1856, from where he returned to England. He later received a gold medal from the London Royal Geographical Society as the first explorer to cross the African continent from west to east. Debate on Discovery It is accepted that stories of the existence of the falls had reached European settlers in the south some 15 years before Livingstone first set eyes on them, and there has been much debate on if Livingstone actually was the first European to visit Falls. Writing in the The South African Handbook (No33) ‘The Victoria Falls’, and published in the early 1900’s, George Lacy records that: “Englishmen in the south had, as early as about 1840, heard reports of the existence, far, far away in the north, of a phenomenon called ‘Mosivatunya’, (the smoke that sounds), but little attention had been paid to them.

They were brought by Bechunaland hunters… who had ventured as far as the Chobe branch of the Zambezi, where, at Linyanti, dwelt the Makalolo. No European, however, was within a hundred miles of them until 1851. In that year, W C Oswell and David Livingstone reached Linyanti, and three weeks later S K Edwards and L H Wilson, and these four were the first in the district. None of them, however, made any attempt to visit the Falls. Oswell was on a hunting expedition, and Livingstone was his interpreter and wagon manager; Edwards and Wilson were hunters and traders.” He concludes that Livingstone discovered the Falls, and as he himself was one of the early visitors, having visited the Falls in November 1869, his contemporary record is significant. Numerous authors have addressed the issue, and in particular the claims including Karel Trichardt in 1838, Jan Viljoen, Erasmus Jacobs and Engelbrecht Viljoen, 1851 and W H Pretorius and Stoffel Snyman in 1855.

However in 1939 the Afrikaaner author Servaas Le Roux wrote "Pioneers and Sportsmen of South Africa 1760-1890". Le Roux's purpose was to highlight the discoveries of Afrikaaners, but on p119 he wrote: “For many years past, especially amongst people who do not draw a clear distinction between vague and ill-founded impression and a properly substantiated fact, there has been prevalent an idea that the Victoria Falls had been visited by European hunters before Dr Livingstone first saw them in November, 1855… "I have no hesitation in saying, after many years of careful investigation of the claims of all the possible visitors to the Falls before Livingstone, that there are no grounds whatsoever for believing that anyone but Livingstone was the first European to see them". Debate on Date In the build up to the 100th and 150th anniversaries of Livingstone’s discovery, there was much debate on the exact date of Livingstone's discovery of the Falls. Over the years there has been much confusion over this date.

Clark & Heath (1910?) state: "The date of the discovery of the Victoria Falls is frequently miss-stated. A common error is to assign it to November 5th, 1855. But the evidence of Livingstone's writings points to the date given in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, namely November 17th, 1855." According to the chronology set out in ‘Missionary Travels’, Livingstone states quite clearly that he left the Victoria Falls on the 20th of November after taking two days to explore the Falls themselves, giving a date of arrival of the 18th. However, on completing his journey across the continent and arrival at Quilimane (Mozambique) he found it was four days later than he reckoned, drawing into doubt the whole chronology of his journey. The debate over the date is thought to been laid to rest on the centenary when Mr P C G Adams (London Missionary Society) had unearthed correspondence from Livingstone stating that he was certain that the date on which he actually first viewed the Falls was the 16th November.

BBC - History - Historic Figures: David Livingstone (1813 - 1873) z David Livingstone © Livingstone was a Scottish missionary and one of the greatest European explorers of Africa, whose opening up the interior of the continent contributed to the 'Scramble for Africa'. David Livingstone was born at Blantyre, south of Glasgow on 19 March 1813. At 10 he began working in the local cotton mill, with school lessons in the evenings. In 1836, he began studying medicine and theology in Glasgow and decided to become a missionary doctor. In 1841, he was posted to the edge of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. In 1845, he married Mary Moffat, daughter of a fellow missionary. Livingstone became convinced of his mission to reach new peoples in the interior of Africa and introduce them to Christianity, as well as freeing them from slavery. It was this which inspired his explorations. In 1849 and 1851, he travelled across the Kalahari, on the second trip sighting the upper Zambezi River.

In 1852, he began a four year expedition to find a route from the upper Zambezi to the coast. This filled huge gaps in western knowledge of central and southern Africa. In 1855, Livingstone discovered a spectacular waterfall which he named 'Victoria Falls'. He reached the mouth of the Zambezi on the Indian Ocean in May 1856, becoming the first European to cross the width of southern Africa. Returning to Britain, where he was now a national hero, Livingstone did many speaking tours and published his best-selling 'Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa' (1857). He left for Africa again in 1858, and for the next five years carried out official explorations of eastern and central Africa for the British government. His wife died of malaria in 1862, a bitter blow and in 1864 he was ordered home by a government unimpressed with the results of his travels. At home, Livingstone publicised the horrors of the slave trade, securing private support for another expedition to central Africa, searching for the Nile's source and reporting further on slavery.

This expedition lasted from 1866 until Livingstone's death in 1873. After nothing was heard from him for many months, Henry Stanley, an explorer and journalist, set out to find Livingstone. This resulted in their meeting near Lake Tanganyika in October 1871 during which Stanley uttered the famous phrase: 'Dr Livingstone I presume?' With new supplies from Stanley, Livingstone continued his efforts to find the source of the Nile. His health had been poor for many years and he died on 1 May 1873. His body was taken back to England and buried in Westminster Abbey. Victoria Falls History Pre-colonial History D iggings in Archaeological sites found around the falls area have yielded Homo habilis stone artifacts that date back to some 3 million years ago. Middle Stone Age tools (50 000 years) and Late Stone Age weapons and digging tools (10 000 and 2000 years) have also been found. Khoisan hunter gatherers using iron tools displaced these Stone Age people and they in turn were displaced by the Southern Tonga people now known as the Batoka tribe, these people still live in the area today.

Iron-using Khoisan hunter-gatherers displaced these Stone Age people and in turn were displaced by Bantu tribes such as the southern Tonga people known as the Batoka/Tokalea, who called the falls Shungu na mutitima. The Matabele, later arrivals, named them aManz’ aThunqayo, and the Batswana and Makololo (whose language is used by the Lozi people) call them Mosi-o-Tunya. All these names mean essentially “the smoke that thunders”. Later many more tribes arrived these included the Matabele and the Makololo tribe, also still present in the area. It was members of this Makololo tribe that escorted David Livingstone the first person to spread the word of the existence of the falls to the Western World on the 17th November 1855. However, Nicolas de Fer’s 1715 map of southern Africa has the fall clearly marked in the correct position. It also has dotted lines denoting trade routes that David Livingstone followed 140 years later.

There also exists a map from c.1750 drawn by Jacques Nicolas Bellin for Abbé Antoine François Prevost d’Exiles marks the falls as “cataractes” and notes a settlement to the north of the Zambezi as being friendly with the Portuguese at the time. The falls were well known to local tribes, and Voortrekker hunters may have known of them, as may the Arabs under a name equivalent to “the end of the world”. Livingstone names the Falls During his 1852–56 journey from the upper Zambezi to the mouth of the river, Livingstone had been told about the falls before he reached them from upriver on 17 November 1855 and was paddled across to a small island that now bears the name Livingstone Island on the Zambian half of the river. Livingstone had previously been impressed by the Ngonye Falls further upstream, but was astounded with the new find, and gave them their English name in honour of Queen Victoria.

He spent the night on Kalai Island a few kilometers upstream of the Falls, having come down river by foot, and the next morning he was paddled out by the local villagers in a small canoe to approach the thundering smoke. He landed on the biggest island on the lip of the falls, now called Livingstone Island and from there obtained his first view of the Falls. ” Creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi, and saw that a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen to twenty yards….the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa.” Of the surrounding area he wrote: “No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight” (Livingstone 1857). He sent word of the Falls to England deciding he would name them after Queen Victoria. Locals still refer to the Falls as Mosi Oa Tunya and the area continues to be revered as a sacred site among the local tribes.

David Livingstone was obviously not the first person to see the Victoria Falls, although he is always credited as having discovered it. Many locals feel they should be rebranded Mosi Oa Tunya. In 1860, Livingstone returned to the area and made a detailed study of the falls with John Kirk. Other early European visitors included Portuguese explorer Serpa Pinto, Czech explorer Emil Holub, who made the first detailed plan of the falls and its surroundings in 1875 (published in 1880),[17] and British artist Thomas Baines, who executed some of the earliest paintings of the falls. Colonial Settlement The falls were seldom visited by other Europeans, until the area was opened up by the building of the railway in 1905. European settlement of the Victoria Falls area started around 1900 in response to the desire of Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company for mineral rights and imperial rule north of the Zambezi, and the exploitation of other natural resources such as timber forests north-east of the falls, and ivory and animal skins.

Before 1905, the river was crossed above the falls at the Old Drift, by dugout canoe or a barge towed across with a steel cable. Rhodes’ vision of a Cape-Cairo railway drove plans for the first bridge across the Zambezi and he insisted it be built where the spray from the falls would fall on passing trains, so the site at the Second Gorge was chosen. See the page on Victoria Falls Bridge. The falls became an increasingly popular attraction during British colonial rule of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), with the town of Victoria Falls on the Southern side, becoming the main tourist centre. By the end of the 1990’s almost 300,000 people were visiting the falls annually, and this was expected to rise to over a million in the next decade. The two countries permit tourists to make day trips from each side and visas can be obtained at the border posts. Costs vary from US$45-US$80 (as of 01 December 2013). Visitors with single entry visas will need to purchase a visa each time they cross the border.

Regular changes in visa regulations mean visitors should check the rules before crossing the border. World Heritage Site In 1989 Victoria Falls was inscribed as a World Heritage Site. What makes the concept of World Heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seek to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972. UNESCO World Heritage Site. The falls also enjoyed the position of one of the seven natural wonders of the world for many years. (this is voted on and changed from time to time). A visit to this spectacular and breathtaking natural phenomenon – the Smoke that Thunders, is truly a must see on any visit to Africa. And with the many varied activities to do in the surrounding area, it makes the trip all the more worthwhile. Facts on Victoria Falls plus information and history...

Home | Facts on Victoria Falls Facts on Victoria Falls This remarkable place is filled with so much history and fascination. Victoria Falls also known as "Mosi oa-Tunya" ("the smoke that thunders") is positioned almost exactly half way along the mighty Zambezi River's 2700 km journey from it's source to the sea. Here the river plunges headlong into a 100m vertical chasm spanning the full one-and-a-half kilometre width of the river. Creating the biggest curtain of falling water in the world and also one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The power of the falls is awesome with the highest ever flow recorded in 1958 ( read more about this flood and the mythology surrounding it ) when it reached more than 700 000 cubic meters of water a minute. The water in the gorges rose 18 metres (60 feet) above its normal flood level. This constant pounding by the currents of the mighty Zambezi has, over the millennium, cut through the rock faults and fissures and carved out not one but eight successive precipices (and now the ninth has begun).

When our early ancestors inhabited this area some 1.5 million years ago, they would have seen a different Victoria falls to he one we see today. Being one of the greatest physical spectacles in Africa it stands to reason that it has attracted so much much interest from us humans over time and therefore the area is steeped in history and mystery. In November 1855, Dr David Livingstone was transported in a canoe by the local Makalolo people to the very edge of these falls. The sensitive Scotsman was so overwhelmed by his first sight of these spectacular falls, that he momentarily abandoned his scientific observations and recorded. "It has never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so wonderful must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight". Loyally the good missionary, whose heart lies buried in Africa, named this great wonder of the world after Victoria, his British queen. We have gone into much more depth about these facts on Victoria Falls and many others in the links below: Facts on Victoria Falls Height, width, volume... Victoria Falls is approximately 1700m wide, and varies in height from 80-108 meters.

It’s one and a half times wider than Niagara Falls and is twice the height making it the biggest curtain of water in the world. Around mid-April is when peak flood waters occur. Roughly 625 million litres of water flow over the edge per minute. This huge volume of water produces a spray that rises up to 1650 feet into the air. Read more... David Livingstone | Article about David Livingstone by The Free Dictionary David Livingstone | Article about David Livingstone by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . David Livingstone Exploration of Africa Livingstone, David (lĭv`ĭngstən, –stōn'), 1813–73, Scottish missionary and explorer in Africa, the first European to cross the African continent. From 1841 to 1852, while a medical missionary for the London Missionary Society in what is now Botswana, he crossed the Kalahari desert and reached (1849) Lake Ngami. He discovered the Zambezi River in 1851.

Hoping to abolish the slave trade by opening Africa to Christian commerce and missionary stations, he traveled (1853) to Luanda on the west coast. Following the Zambezi River, he discovered and named Victoria Falls (1855) and reached the east coast at Quelimane, Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), in 1856. His Missionary Travels (1857) in South Africa is an account of that journey. Appointed British consul at Quelimane, he was given command of an expedition (1857–63) to explore the Zambezi region. Livingstone returned to England (1864) and with his brother Charles wrote The Zambezi and Its Tributaries (1865). In 1866 he returned to Africa to seek the source of the Nile. He discovered lakes Mweru and Bangweula and in 1871 reached the Lualaba tributary of the Congo River. Sickness compelled his return to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, where the journalist H. M.

Stanley Stanley, Sir Henry Morton, 1841–1904, Anglo-American journalist, explorer, and empire builder, b. Denbigh, Wales. He grew up in poverty and came to America as a worker on a ship, which he jumped (1858) in New Orleans. ..... Click the link for more information. found him in 1871. Unable to persuade Livingstone to leave, Stanley joined him on a journey (1871–72) to the north end of Lake Tanganyika. In 1873 Livingstone died in the village of Chief Chitambo. African followers carried his body to the coast; it was sent to England and buried in Westminster Abbey. Livingstone's last journals were edited by Horace Waller (1874). Bibliography There are some 100 biographies of Livingstone; among them are those by J. Simmons (1955, repr. 1962), G. Martelli (1970), T. Jeal (1973), and O. Ransford (1978). Livingstone, David Born Mar.

19, 1813, in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland; died May 1, 1873, in Chitambo, Zambia. British explorer of Africa. Livingstone was a physician by education. In 1840 he was sent by the London Missionary Society to South Africa. From 1841 to 1852 he lived among the Bakwena in the Kalahari region, which he explored from south to north. In 1849 he was the first to reach Lake Ngami, and in 1851 he discovered the Linyanti River, as well as the lower course of the Kwando, a right tributary of the Zambezi. During 1853 and 1854, Livingstone traveled up the Zambezi from its mouth to its most distant tributary, the Chefumage. Beyond Lake Dilolo, at 11 °S lat., he discovered the watershed between the upper Zambezi and the Kasai, of the Congo system. Turning west, he reached the Atlantic Ocean at Luanda.

In 1855, Livingstone returned to the upper course of the Zambezi, followed the river all the way down to the delta, discovered the Victoria Falls (1855), and came out at the Indian Ocean near the city of Quelimane in May 1856, having traversed the continent. Returning to Great Britain, Livingstone published Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857). The Royal Geographical Society awarded him its gold medal for this trip. Livingstone was appointed British consul in Quelimane and was made the chief of a government-sponsored research expedition that arrived at the Zambezi delta in May 1858. In 1859 he discovered Lake Shirwa and visited Lake Nyasa, which had been discovered by the Portuguese explorer C. Boccaro in 1616. In 1860, Livingstone traveled up the Zambezi to the Linyanti, and in 1861 he completed his exploration of Lake Nyasa. Livingstone returned to Great Britain in 1864.

In 1865 his second book was published: Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and Its Tributaries, which he wrote together with his brother and fellow explorer, Charles. In 1866, Livingstone again arrived in East Africa and soon lost contact with Europe. From 1867 to 1871 he investigated the southern and western shores of Lake Tanganyika; he discovered Lake Bangweulu to the southwest and the large north-flowing Lualaba, which is the upper Congo (though Livingstone did not know that). He became seriously ill and turned back. Livingstone settled in Ujiji, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, and it was here that H. Stanley found him in October 1871. Together they explored the northern part of Lake Tanganyika and became convinced that the lake is not connected with the Nile. In February 1872, Livingstone sent his materials back to Great Britain with Stanley, and in August 1872 he moved to the Lualaba River in order to continue to explore it. He died in Chitambo, to the south of Lake Bangweulu.

His remains were transported to Great Britain and were interred at Westminster Abbey. In 1874 his notes for 1865 to 1872 were published as the Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa. During his travels Livingstone determined the location of more than 1,000 points. He was the first to indicate the basic features of the relief map of Southern Africa. He studied the Zambezi River system and laid the basis for the scientific exploration of Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. A city in Zambia, mountains in East Africa, and a waterfall on the Congo River in Zaire have all been named after Livingstone. A humanist by conviction, Livingstone condemned and fought against the slave trade. There is a memorial museum to Livingstone in Scotland near the city of Glasgow. REFERENCES To the Victoria Falls - More on the Victoria Falls To The Victoria Falls More on the Victoria Falls 'Discovery' of the Victoria Falls David Livingstone first ‘discovered’ and named the Victoria Falls in 1855, naming them the Victoria Falls in honour of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria.

His written accounts caught the imagination of Victorian Britain and, together with the later paintings of Thomas Baines , brought the Falls to the attention of the world. Travelling downstream with a group of Makalolo paddlers as guides, Livingstone was struck by the beauty of the river above the Falls, recording “scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”. This quotation is often used in reference to the Falls themselves, but it was the stretches of river immediately upstream of the Falls which had enchanted Livingstone. Arriving at the island which now bears his name, on the very lip of the Falls, he gained his first view of them from what must be one of the most breathtaking of viewpoints, describing it as “the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa”. [See Discovery of the Victoria Falls for more information.] Many explorers and early European pioneers followed [see In Livingstone's Footsteps for more information.], but when Livingstone first set eyes on the Falls in 1855 he could have hardly imagined that less than 50 years later engineers and workmen would be planning to construct a steel railway bridge across the gorge immediately below the great waterfall.

It is often debated if it can be truly said that David Livingstone 'discovered' the Victoria Falls, and more often than not the word is now avoided in a perhaps miss-placed sense of political correctness. Martin (1997) records: Such a claim pre-supposes that for a white man - as opposed to a black man or a woman of either hue - to see the Falls is of added significance. Beyond the obviously racist and sexist (not to mention irrelevant) connotation of such a statement, there is also a question mark as to whether Livingstone was indeed the first white man to see the Falls. [Martin, 1997] However, Livingstone was the first to publish descriptions of the Falls, and through his writings and self-promotion they became known to the rest of the world. Just as a scientist discovers a new species by being the first to notice its distinctions, describing and publishing them, so our Victorian explorer can be said to be the discoverer of the Falls, with no disrespect to those who may have known of them before.

The nationality, or colour of the individual is, as Martin rightly says, irrelevant, and to diminish Livingstone's achievement is a disservice to a man who did much to further the rights of black Africans, specifically his role in the abolishment of slavery, the destructive horrors of which penetrated deep into the Dark Continent, as Livingstone himself witnessed and recorded in his travels. Names for the Victoria Falls Livingstone named them the Victoria Falls, after the reigning British Queen, Victoria, and they are still globally known by this name today. The Makololo (or Kololo) people who guided Livingstone to the Falls called them Mosi-oa-Tunya, which Livingstone translated as 'smoke sounder there' or the 'smoke which sounds', but which today is commonly translated as the 'Smoke that Thunders' (alternative translations include the 'smoke which explodes', the 'smoke that fumes', or 'the mist which thunders'). However the Makololo themselves were newcomers to the region, having temporarily overthrown the Lozi overlords.

By the time of Livingstone's second visit, in 1860, the period of Makololo rule had ended, but they have left their mark in the language with their name for the Falls, which is still used locally, especially within the Lozi peoples on the northern banks of the river. Livingstone records that prior to this the Falls were simply known as Shongwe (translated as 'boiling water in a pot'), but recent historians have doubted his interpretation in its use. The Nambya people south of the river call them Chinotimba, the Place that Thunders. Chinotimba is now also the name given to the township and suburbs of the Victoria Falls tourist town. The Ndebele (or Matabele as they were known) call them Amapopoma efolosi, meaning 'waterfall at a place called Falls'. The Toka-Leya , who can claim to be the traditional inhabitants of the local region, originally knew them as Shungu na mutitima which translates similarly to the Makololo phrase, and is probably the source of this name.

They apparently expanded their definition by qualifying it with Mutuba wati nkayoke mulilo, meaning 'a fool might think he could collect fire from it' [Northern Rhodesia Journal, Vol 1, No 4, p80-82, and Vol 1, No 6, p68]. The Matabele, later arrivals, named them aManz’ aThunqayo. All these names mean essentially 'the smoke that thunders'. Another name Motse-oa-Barimo was translated by Livingstone as the 'pestle of the gods'. Livingstone recorded being invited to a ceremony on what is now Livingstone Island, writing: They choose their places of prayer within the sound of the roar of the cataract, and in sight of the bright bows in the cloud... The play of colours of the double iris on the cloud, seen by them elsewhere only as the rainbow, may have led to the idea that this was the abode of some Deity. Writing later in 1878, Francois Colliard described a similar ceremony, again from Livingstone Island.

He wrote how local inhabitants; believe it is haunted by a malevolent and cruel divinity, and they make offerings to conciliate its favour, a bead necklace, a bracelet or some other object, which they fling into the abyss, bursting into lugubrious incantations, quite in harmony with their dread and horror. Dr David Livingstone - The Victoria Falls Hotel Dr David Livingstone Discovered Victoria Falls in November 1855 Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight. Scottish missionary David Livingstone first heard about Victoria Falls, known as Mosi-oa-Tunya, four years before he arrived there. The area was a sacred site for the Batoka and other local tribes. On 17 November 1855, Chief Sekeletu of the Makololo paddled Livingstone to an island in the Zambezi, known as Goat Island. Although the water was low at the time, Livingstone still felt a "tremor of fear" as he approached the wall of spray.

Gazing down into the churning chasm below must have been a heart-stopping experience (you can still visit the island, now called Livingstone Island, from the Zambian side during the dry season and take a dip in Devil’s Pool at the edge of the precipice). Livingstone beautifully described what he saw in his diaries: "No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." For more, visit here

Question: Who discovered and named Victoria Falls in 1855
Answer: David Livingstone